Family, God and Now Doctor

It’s unanimous. They all agree, I’m too old and too whatever to climb onto the roof for repairs or to clean my chimney. After last Friday night when I became ill with nausea, dizziness, and heart palpitations, I called my doctor Monday to arrange an appointment. At the office, I filled her in with my symptoms and a bit more history of my fall in February of 2015. I shared that I’d had two bleeds in my head from the fall, that I’ve had several episodes of disequilibrium prior to the fall, and that I’ve recently had several instances of an irregular heartbeat. The irregular heartbeats occur randomly and would last about 20 minutes. I also shared that I didn’t go to the hospital because of its short duration. By the time I would go to the hospital, there would be nothing to evaluate. She nodded her head like she understood.

While a talked to her, I said that this recent incident delayed my need to climb onto the roof to clean my chimney. Her look was something akin to horror. Now she was shaking her head and telling me no, stay off the roof. Her warning coincided with my family’s wishes and God’s delays from the illness and the weather.

There’s nothing more frustrating than having someone tell me I’m too old to do something. When I get to the point in life that feel I’m too old, that is completely different, but back to my story.

She began to type on her computer. When she was done, she turned the screen to me and said, “I’m ordering some blood work. No EKG yet. Without having the symptoms now, it would accomplish nothing. It’s too soon to order a Holter monitor and with the symptoms so random it would be senseless.”

But she did order a major battery of blood tests. Myocardial enzyme tests because as a diabetic, heart attacks can be silent, only appearing as nausea. The next test was a complete blood count to rule out a sinus infection. She ordered a urinalysis and electrolytes. An A 1 C was to check my blood sugar. Because I’d complained about aches and pains in my joints, she threw in a test for Lyme’s disease. After all, I do go hunting and ticks are prevalent in Pennsylvania.

So, now I sit and wait to hear the results from the tests and dream about prancing about on the roof waving a chimney brush singing “Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cheree.” Where is Mary Poppins when I need her?